New lawsuit targets top officials

Credit: Angela Rowlings

LEGAL MESS: A new lawsuit sparked by the state’s drug lab scandal lets chemist Annie Dookhan, pictured, off the hook but names lab bosses and state officials, including JudyAnn Bigby and John Auerbach The crisis has the potential to haunt Gov. Deval Patrick, observers say.

Credit: Herald staff (Files)

LEGAL MESS: A new lawsuit sparked by the state’s drug lab scandal lets chemist Annie Dookhan, right, off the hook but names lab bosses and state officials, including JudyAnn Bigby, center top, and John Auerbach, center bottom. The crisis has the potential to haunt Gov. Deval Patrick, left, observers say.

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A man whose drug conviction was reversed after he was sprung from prison because of the massive drug lab scandal is targeting former top state officials in a potential “nightmare” lawsuit experts say could cast a spotlight on policy failures in the Patrick administration and dog the governor if he pursues a White House bid in 2016.

“Once you get into discovery, it could be a nightmare,” said Boston University political history professor Thomas Whalen. “Gov. Patrick has said he had no knowledge of this, so we’ll see who knew what. The courts will open this up. It could be a can of worms for the Patrick administration.”

David Jones, who spent more than two years in prison based on drug evidence analyzed by rogue chemist Annie Dookhan before his convictions were overturned in March, is suing former Secretary of Health and Human Services JudyAnn Bigby, former state Public Health commissioner John Auerbach and three former top lab bosses.

Unlike a previous federal lawsuit filed in February that names Dookhan, Bigby, Auerbach and prosecutors, Jones’ complaint leaves Dookhan, who is accused of tainting drug evidence in thousands of cases, and prosecutors off the hook and places the blame squarely on the administration.

“Her misconduct is widely known and she’s being held accountable in the criminal courts, but at this point no one is holding her supervisors accountable,” said attorney Michael Tumposky, who filed the suit on behalf of Jones. “The purpose of this lawsuit is to highlight the policy failures as well as the failure of the supervisors who should have seen what was going on and to a certain extent knew what was going on and didn’t do anything to stop it.”

DPH officials declined comment on the lawsuit, and efforts to reach Bigby and Auerbach yesterday were unsuccessful.

The state could face hundreds of similar lawsuits, said Douglas Sheff, incoming Massachusetts Bar Association president.

“Some of these cases can be worth a great deal of money. There are enough people affected that the state should consider a means to group all the cases together and handle them in a fair and efficient manner,” Sheff said.

Whalen said the scandal could resurface if Patrick seeks higher office or an Obama administration job.

“He’s been portraying himself as the guy who you can count on to get things done,” he said. “Based on this drug scandal, it would cause people to doubt whether this narrative is accurate.”

But Stonehill College political studies director Peter Ubertaccio said Patrick may not face more blowback than he already has from the scandal because Dookhan’s crimes don’t appear to be politically motivated.

“It doesn’t mean it will not hurt his administration. I’m just not sure how deep of a wound it will be,” he said.

Ubertaccio and Whalen agree the full political ramifications won’t be known until administration emails and memos are dredged up as evidence in the case.

“It’s a potential snake pit for the administration,” said Whalen.

Key dates in state crime lab scandal

• June 2011: Problems at the William A. Hinton State Laboratory Institute first come to light internally.

• Aug. 30, 2012: State officials finally close the state drug lab and drop the bombshell announcement that state drug lab chemist Annie Dookhan may have tainted thousands of criminal cases.

• Sept. 4, 2012: The alarm goes out to thousands of defense attorneys statewide that problems at the Jamaica Plain lab could have serious impact on their clients’ drug convictions and cases still in the pipeline.

• Sept. 14, 2012: State bosses fired over the lab scandal failed to see the significance of the rogue chemist’s mishandling of drug evidence for years, officials say.

• Sept. 20, 2012: David Meier, a former Suffolk homicide prosecutor, is named to review thousands of potentially tainted cases.

• Sept. 26, 2012: A police report says Dookhan admits to cops she “messed up bad” by forging signatures, sneaking evidence out of a drug safe and tainting drug samples over the years.

• Oct. 5, 2012: The first defendants are freed because of Dookhan’s alleged mishandling of drug evidence.

• Nov. 1, 2012: The attorney general agrees to appoint an independent investigator to look into the scandal as state officials set aside $30 million to reimburse agencies and cities for costs.